BEIRUT: Ex-minister Michel Samaha and the head of the Syrian National Security Bureau Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk will face separate trials on terrorism charges, a judicial source told The Daily Star Monday.
The two were charged in 2013 over allegedly smuggling explosives into Lebanon to carry out bombings, but the trial has been repeatedly postponed because of the failure of authorities to communicate with Mamlouk.
Government Commissioner to the Military Tribunal Judge Sakr Sakr agreed Monday to separate the trials, meaning the trial of Samaha, arrested in 2012, may move forward.
A judicial source told The Daily Star that the proposal to disengage the two files was initially made by the head of the Military Tribunal, Gen. Nizar Khalil, in order to facilitate Samaha’s trial, after the Lebanese authorities had failed on more than one occasion to notify Mamlouk about the dates of hearings.
The Military Tribunal can now start Samaha’s prosecution as scheduled on June 15, the source said, noting that the session could take place earlier if requested by the former minister’s defense lawyers.
Al-Akhbar reported on Saturday that the trial would start next month, but the judicial source could not confirm if that was true.
The decision implies that there will be no trial in absentia for Mamlouk, the source added.
The public trial of the former minister and Mamlouk, who were accused in 2012 of plotting terrorist attacks in Lebanon, has been delayed several times because the judiciary was unable to notify the Syrian official.
In 2013, the Court of Cassation approved an indictment which calls for the death penalty against Samaha as well as Mamlouk and an aide of the Syrian official, who was identified as Col. Adnan.
Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghayda charged the men with plotting to assassinate political and religious figures in north Lebanon.
The indictment also charged the three men with orchestrating a plot to assassinate Syrian opposition figures and arms traffickers entering Syria from Lebanon.
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